VENTURA COUNTY ROUNDUP | Port Hueneme

City OKs $100,000 Grant for Library

Readers at the town's only library will soon have more books, tapes and magazines to chose from, now that the City Council has approved a $100,000 grant to buy more books.

The unanimous vote last week stipulated that the money only go toward additional lending materials for the Ray D. Prueter Library and not for library overhead, officials said.

Purchases for the understocked library will include books, books on CD-ROM, audiotape books and magazine subscriptions.

Budget cuts in recent years shrank operating hours at the county-run facility's to 24 hours each week, and reduced new reading material to a trickle, said Starrett Kreissman, director of the Ventura County Library.

Additional money from the city and the nonprofit group Friends of the Ray D. Prueter Library has since boosted hours to 31 a week, but city officials want to expand to 40 hours, Kreissman said.

The grant will be handed out in four installments of $25,000 each starting Sept. 30, officials said.